Chris Ferguson’s Secret FTP Bank Accounts and Threats to GBT Deal

From at least April of 2007, Chris Ferguson funnelled just under $60 million of his Full Tilt distribution payments into bank accounts held for him in the name of Pocket Kings Ltd,1 in addition to the roughly $25 million that the US Department of Justice reported that he received in their amended civil complaint. He successfully withdrew or spent about $45 million of this funnelled money, but about $14.3 million of it was used for Full Tilt’s post-Black Friday expenses, reportedly with his permission. In an attempt to recover this money, Ferguson and his lawyer, Ian Imrich, have threatened repeatedly to take steps that might impede the pending deal with the DOJ and Groupe Bernard Tapie.

Contents

Ferguson’s Accounts

Ferguson’s distributions were paid mostly into accounts that Pocket Kings held for him. These accounts were unambiguously controlled by him, and were typically referred to as “Chris’s accounts.” For example, his April 2007 distribution was about $1.3 million, $400,000 of which went to his personal account and about $900,000 of which went to a PK account. His March 2011 distribution was about $1.9 million, $600,000 of which went to his personal account and about $1.3 million of which went to a PK account. These transactions are roughly typical, and in total, he had $25.2 million sent directly to his personal account and just under $60 million sent to the accounts that Pocket Kings held for him.

Ferguson was then able to effectively withdraw the majority of this roughly $60 million in a variety of ways, in a large number of transactions over a four-year period. He withdrew $3.5 million directly to various personal accounts of his, sent another $3.5 million to his lawyer Ian Imrich (including $2 million that was reportedly meant to be forwarded straight to Ferguson), gave out $3.5 million in loans to other owners that were explicitly marked to be repaid elsewhere,2 sent $352,500 to charity, purchased $10 million in additional shares from other owners, made about $17.75 million additional payments to other owners whose purpose was unclear to us (including $7 million in the days leading up to Black Friday), put just under $2 million into personal investments, sent $160,000 to an acquaintance, sent $2.38 million to a Hawaiian real estate limited liability company, and made just under $2 million in additional payments that we were unable to classify.3Subject: Poker believes that all of these transactions were made at Ferguson’s request or at the request of his attorney, Ian Imrich.

However, he did not withdraw all of this money; just over $14.3 million was left in the accounts and, after Black Friday when the company faced insolvency, was used to pay for Full Tilt expenses, perhaps including non-US player withdrawals. One source, whom we believe to be credible, told Subject: Poker that Ferguson gave permission for this money to be spent in this way.

Threats to the GBT Deal

Ferguson and Imrich have been trying to get back the roughly $14.3 million from Ferguson’s Pocket Kings accounts that went to Full Tilt’s expenses. In fact, early versions of Full Tilt’s agreement with Groupe Bernard Tapie included provisions to give Ferguson passive shares worth approximately $14 million. But, that offer was removed when the DOJ objected to Full Tilt’s board of directors having any shares in the potential new company. Since this happened, Ferguson and Imrich have been claiming that they are entitled to an accounting to see if they can recoup for themselves any funds that they feel were spent improperly.

If they don’t receive this accounting, Imrich and Ferguson have threatened to file for, amongst other things, a constructive trust over the money seized on Black Friday and injunctive relief to delay the planned forfeiture of FTP’s assets until their issue is settled. Numerous sources have reported these threats. The approximately $35-$45 million that was seized on Black Friday is currently expected to be released to GBT to help repay non-US players. So, either of these steps could stop the deal if they were granted by a judge.

Sources tell Subject: Poker that Ferguson and Imrich have not received such an accounting. They have not yet followed through on these threats as of the publishing of this article. It is not clear whether they can even legally file such a suit, nor is it clear that it would be successful.

Ferguson’s April 20th Canceled Withdrawal

Ferguson continued to use the accounts that Pocket Kings held for him after Black Friday. On April 20th, five days after US players lost the ability to withdraw, $5 million was wired from one of Ferguson’s Pocket Kings accounts to his personal bank account. This personal account was distinct from the one that received $25.2 million in distributions and was not the one that the DOJ seized on September 20th. However, Subject: Poker has learned (after a long investigation) that Ferguson agreed to send this $5 million back to Pocket Kings the day after it was sent to his account. This money then became part of the $14.3 million that was eventually used for company expenses.

Ian Imrich

Ferguson’s attorney, Ian Imrich, was FTP’s general counsel since its inception. This was well known amongst the owners. However, he was also reportedly the recipient of monthly distributions. These distributions were apparently not paid via the normal channels, but instead were paid privately by Chris Ferguson from his own personal distributions, reportedly from the $25.2 million sent directly to an account in Ferguson’s name. This was above and beyond the over $12 million that Imrich received for legal fees directly from Full Tilt.

As early as mid July, after Full Tilt’s licenses were suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and well before negotiations had begun with GBT, Imrich, still acting as Full Tilt’s counsel, was already trying to get Ferguson credit for the $14.3 million that he agreed to use for Pocket Kings’ expenses. This included the $5 million that Ferguson withdrew after Black Friday and then sent back.

Imrich resigned as general counsel in September, soon after the amended complaint was filed. He filed his appearance as personal counsel to Ferguson on November 2nd. Although another attorney, Jon Harris of Cutler & Houghteling LLP, also filed an appearance on Ferguson’s behalf on October 6th, Imrich is still actively involved in trying to get his client credit for the money that Ferguson agreed to use for Pocket Kings’ expenses.

The Department of Justice

The US Department of Justice apparently did not know about Ferguson’s accounts in Pocket Kings’ name (or perhaps just Ferguson’s control over them) when it filed its amended civil complaint on September 20th. Instead, the amended complaint and the corresponding DOJ press statement said that Ferguson had “received at least $25 million, with the remaining balance [of about $60 million in unaccounted for distributions] characterized as ‘owed’ to him.” As we explained above, Ferguson did in fact receive $25.2 million in distributions into the US bank account that the DOJ mentioned in its amended complaint, but he also moved over $45 million from accounts held for him in Pocket Kings’ name and agreed to have the remaining $14.3 million used for Full Tilt expenses.

Multiple sources tell Subject: Poker that the DOJ has successfully seized approximately $300,000 from Ferguson, significantly less than the $25 million that the DOJ is suing Ferguson for in the amended complaint. So, it is not clear how Ferguson intends to receive the $14.3 million without immediately having it seized by the DOJ.

We made repeated attempts to contact Mr. Imrich and attempted to contact Mr. Ferguson as well. Unfortunately, neither of them was available for comment. We will update our readership if either of them provides a comment.

Subject: Poker would like to make clear that we have no reason to believe that the above threats have in any way been successful in stalling or impeding the impending deal.

The process is taking longer than our sources initially expected, but we hope to be able to report its successful completion in the future.

Footnotes

Though there were multiple such accounts, we see no reason to distinguish between them. ↩

Ferguson did not only use the accounts that Pocket Kings held for him for his distributions; some loans, which were not included in the above figures, were actually repaid to Ferguson via these Pocket Kings accounts, and he earned $821,071.20 in interest. This complicates the accounting slightly, and the result is that some of these numbers are minor underestimates. ↩

Also, some of the players could be held accountable. I personally overdrew bank accounts thinking that the funds would be deposited and then when my parents closed the bank accounts the funds were never collected by FTP. I feel powerless as to how my $4000 or so can affect the entire repayment process, but I hope that at least by stepping forward it can be recognized that the onus is on all of us, myself certainly included and not least the government for restricting access to playing poker in the first place.

“Multiple sources tell Subject: Poker that the DOJ has successfully seized approximately $300,000 from Ferguson, significantly less than the $25 million that the DOJ is suing Ferguson for in the amended complaint. So, it is not clear how Ferguson intends to receive the $14.3 million without immediately having it seized by the DOJ.”

You just demonstrated how good he is at hiding money and then ask how he would hide another $14.3mm? That some kind of a joke?

Forget about hiding it, he would have to accept it in the open during litigation, and even if he were successful, 1. He would be taking money that you are trying to recoup for your own balance from the very very limited funds available, and 2. The DOJ already is putting the clamp on any money he has. So your comment defies logic, DUCY?

“The DOJ already is putting the clamp on any money he has”, no they aren’t. They are trying and failing hard. He received tens of millions of dollars and they have recovered only $300k. These guys and their lawyers are experts at offshore banking/corporations etc. They wont ever find the bulk of the money paid to Howard and Jesus, or would have found Bitars money if he hadn’t spent all of it on fine dining and Ivey’s if he hadn’t blown it all at the craps table.

How exactly Jesus and his lawyer are attempting to receive those funds is unclear but you can be sure given their track record it isn’t going to be as a certified check made out to Chris Furgeson that he’ll deposit into a US bank account and hope nobody notices. More likely a payment to some offshore corporation owned by another corporation owned by another none of which is tied directly to Jesus and is all outside the jurisdiction of the US government. Thats how this game works and its how they made all that money disappear.

excellent work again! If this Ferguson mess isn´t the (main) reaon of the delay of the completion of the Deal with the DOJ, do you have any idea about the nature / severity of the main cause of the delay? In other words, is it more propable that the solution would take rather weeks than months or is it the other way round? I´m asking in such a “roundabout way” just considering the case that you may not be able to disclose too much right now… Thanks for giving us more information than anybody else.

There is no reason to think that the “Ferguson mess” as you call it, has been the reason for any delays to date. I also have no reason to think it will be months before the next expected steps in the process (the forfeiture and dismissals) are complete. The purchase of those assets should follow closely behind. It would be totally unfair of me to speculate on a timetable, but everyone hopes that information is forthcoming soon.

what a joke these guys are! and what amounts of money you are talking about for single persons. i dont wish anybody anything bad but THESE heartless bastards should burn in hell! im so angry about this news!!!

It’s certainly the case that the company was insolvent before Black Friday. It was certainly more blatantly insolvent after Black Friday, more because of the fact that they suddenly had to allow US players to withdraw simultaneously than because of the DOJ seizures.

btw I have to congratulate and thank you guys for this amazing work. To find a big missing piece to the amended DOJ complaint is huge. I think most of us probably thought something was suspicious when they said $60 million was owed to him.

Thank you Diamond. Without you guys setting the record straight, we would all be completely in the dark. And I thought Ferguson tried to do the right thing.

I remember seeing this guy’s ugly bald ass picture on the cover of a card player when he won a bracelet or something. He bought himself a hat and an image and sold himself to the world as a poker legend. Now, he will go down as nothing but a fraud.

And I hope he reads this. Because he may get to drive a nicer car or live in a nicer house right now because he conned me out of my money, but in the end… after you’re long gone… all you have is your honor and the memories you leave.

Is this not further proof of Full Tilt’s lies, giving proof to the fact that they cooked their accounting books? How much revenue did they earn per year? To not be able to keep track of two years of their alleged revenue disappearing?

Perhaps FTP will come up with a bogus excuse, such as Ferguson was personally taking care of VIP customers or some bs.

Also, I see your point about Ferguson being quite silly about trying to get money from FTP while the DOJ is just going to take it away. Maybe there is some loophole they are targeting. Is there any limitation to what the DOJ can seize? For example, does money Ferguson earned as a player or a shareholder before the shady bank dealings happened fall into this category? Or perhaps he could say he reinvested the money (when the business was legit) into his own poker account, and that those funds should be treated like every other players funds.

Pretty sure the values that the DOJ could seize are dependent on the statutes and the charges. I think that would be true for anyone in any case. IANAL nor an expert in the field, and don’t feel comfortable just taking a guess to answer further. Sorry.

What I can say is that the monies we referred to in the article are totally separate from anything CF had in his player account. We referred specifically only to his distributions.

Don’t you have any soul or conscience to snitch a guy that sent back is money to pay back players to the extend of several millions? Do you think Jesus is a main culprit in all the scheme? You should wake up and realise who are the bad guys in this story. The government shakedown arm is truly deserving your help? Instead of spending your time researching to snitch you should take some time to see in what country your living and who you are helping with those articles. I’m very positive that Ferguson is the lesser of two evils.

My conscience is totally clear sir.
Right up to Black Friday, Ferguson had no issues withdrawing tens of millions of dollars. Most players were not as fortunate.
The fact that he had neglected to withdraw 14M by BF and agreed to use it for the company to stay afloat does not make him a hero. This was at a time when the true nature of the state of the finances at FTP were a big secret to those of us on the outside looking in and it was well guarded. This was also at a time when we were being told our funds were safe.
I don’t work for the government. They didn’t ask me to help, nor do they need my help.
If they didnt know this informatio before, they would have found out soon enough. But the poker community likely would not have.
Plenty of things I don’t like about the state of affairs in my country. There are more things that I do like.
Failure of the company was imminent, with or without BF happening. That should be clear to you by now.
I have a soul and a conscience. I sleep fine at night. This article doesn’t change that one bit.

Wow, does this ever make Ferguson look bad, or perhaps more accurately – shows how bad he was. My general feeling was that he was a mild-mannered, ballroom dancing, banana slicing poker player that made good, and maybe he didn’t know what was happening behind the scenes as much as some people thought he might, and probably he’s a pretty good guy that got caught up in something, etc. But, wow, now I think he’s a money-crazed nut-job who’s going to cost me any chance at recovering my funds.

Had he been smart when the chit hit the fan, he return the money saying something like, I didnt know this was player money. Take it back, its theirs. Now I hope they string him up by his friggin balls and his beard

To be fair, there could certainly be more. We obviously do not have access to all of Ferguson’s personal bank records, nor do we intend to disparage in any way, any contributions to valid charitable causes.

I am glad that someone is taking the time to put all of the accounting, money movements, and the results of bad management into a coherent framework. There is the basis for a great book, if not a terrific movie, in this basket of weasels called FullTilt. Nicely done!

I don’t think this will impede the GBT deal (at least hope it doesn’t) and personally I think Ferguson should be the *last* person to get any kind of money paid back. Pay back the loyal customers who you made $60m+ off and if you take a $14m loss, maybe you shouldn’t have ****ed around and managed the company like ****. FTP was always my favourite site/software… until they stole my BR

Sooooo get er done, reopen, pay us back, and maybe Ill even play there again

I dont understand how Phil ivey could be receiving 920 thous a month prior to black friday.Over 4 year 42 mil the top 15 persons involved made over 40 mil each over 4 years and the top 3 made 100 mil each for 890 million total. The goverment needs to build a prison for them all and also go to jail them selves, Well the way i see it if the doj left well enough alone i would have had a better chance of getting our monies lmfao say by to are money and move on i am only out 78 thousand bye bye dont get to comfortable in a live tourney.

Good work, Subject:Poker. I’m just blown away by the numbers — and particularly how they’re so matter-of-factly thrown around: He withdrew 45 MILLION, agreed to leave behind 14.5 MILLION!!! Seriously, MILLIONS! Seems it would have been quite easy for US players to get PROPERLY paid were it not for the fact the the FT upper MGMT cashed out anything and everything they could. They could have paid everyone and STILL had TONS OF F’N CASH!!!!

behead that chris ferguson no he wants to frck withh all the online players oneof these black friday guysi s going to get killed with all heair lame actions they think u can just screw around with people until that peole because of you hiot rock bottom then u mus run lil chris

Wow! Interesting the held the money in PK’s name. How much do you want to bet he never declared any of this on his tax returns! I will bet the IRS will be interested in knowing all about these accounts. If he wasn’t guilty of fraud, you can probably add tax evasion to the list….at least it looks that way, but maybe I am wrong. Still talk about balls of steel, still trying to chase the money when players are owed so much!

This article says more good than bad about Chris Ferguson as far as I am concerned or have I misunderstood this article and its contents?

At least he has paid money towards the running costs and possibly some player repayments since BF (why havent any of the others)

He hasnt takenor received his full share of dividend money whilst all the other shareholders have done so.

Most importantly and highly significantly he has bought out other shareholders and lent some money against their shareholdings. If he did this at inflated valuations of the FTP companies then it strongly suggests to me that he was not aware of the true financial situation at the company and that others (namely Ray Bitar) hid the true state of affairs from him. If he knew the company wasnt making sufficient profits to warrant the excessive dividend payments why would he buy out and lend money at a greater than fair rate relative to the true value? Couple this with reports from employees that he appeared to take very little interest in the running of the company and I think it becomes clear that maybe he could just be an innocent victim in all this and has a solid defence against the accusations against him and the uninformed and quite likely unjustified vitriol being directed at him in the above comments.

I believe that this interpretation of the article in relation to Chris Ferguson would be a fairer and more realistic one to draw than the united and universal hatred of him relayed in the comments above.

The whole article went right over your head. You probably never heard about washing clothes or been to the laundry, or even thought about the laundry process. Right. Ferguson, the calculating math genius must have decided to trust a bunch of rounders with Full Tilt’s finances, the naive gullible fish that he is.

This does just get messier as time goes on.
Its something to point out, all the people responsible should be funnelling the money back to the players. Its the players who are all out of pocket because of this.